“Lorena.”
I blink back my memories of William and Salma and what happened in that room—and when I look around, I don’t recognize where I am.
“Do you need medical attention, too?”
It’s Director Minaro speaking to me. We’re in an unfamiliar room, but judging by the two stretcher-like beds, it must be the nurse’s office. Trevor is lying back on a bed while the nurse tends to him, and Tiffany and Zach are sitting in plastic chairs, just like me.
“I’m fine,” I say.
“I would like to go over this one more time so that I can give Trevor’s parents an accurate account of what happened. Salma did not tell any of you that her father was planning to pick her up a day early, and after Lorena found out, she came to tell the rest of you. In his haste to reach Salma before the car left, Trevor fell down the stairs?”
“Yes,” says Tiffany. It’s the first time I’m hearing this story.
“Well, the students are engaged in the afternoon activities you planned for them,” says Minaro, “and it seems like you all had a traumatic experience, so get some rest and join us for dinner. You have done an excellent job preparing this day.”
“Have—have you seen William?” asks Tiffany.
Minaro looks at me before answering. “Alas, I am not sure we will see him again. I was hoping to speak with Miss Navarro about that.”
“What do you mean?” asks Trevor, sitting up on the patient bed.
“Well, we have not been able to locate his official records. We are beginning to wonder whether he was actually a student at all… or a scam artist.”
We all exchange looks.
“As you might imagine, this opens the school up to potential scrutiny. Lorena, as you were closest to him, would you mind coming to my office to answer some questions?”
I have some questions of my own for the director.
“Absolutely.”
WHEN WEenter her office, I turn to Minaro with my arms crossed. “Who—orwhat—are you?”
“I am the guardian of the spell.”
I blink, taken aback by both the directness and mysteriousness of her answer. “Where is William?” I ask.
I remember him carrying me out of that room, away from Salma. He told me to keep walking, and that’s when I found Trevor on the floor and my friends saying we needed to get him to the nurse’s office. But the whole thing was a blur because I didn’t feel like I was there. Most of me remained in that dusty room, on the floor with Salma.
“He is in death-sleep, along with the others,” says the director. “I have hidden them, so no mortal will stumble across them again. Not until the spell breaks, and I disappear.”
He’s gone then.
And so is Salma.
I lost them both.
An emptiness fills me that feels even worse than crying. It’s like a void opened in my chest, and it’s sucking all the world’s colors into it. “You knew,” I whisper. “You said I would lose both of them.”
“Do you believe in destiny?”asks Minaro, and I wonder what she means. “That even the powers of time can be altered for a single purpose? That the luckiest man who walks on this earth is the one who finds… true love?”
“Dracula,” I say, recognizing the quote.
“By falling in love with you, William did right by both humans andvampires,” says Minaro. “He has been fundamentally changed and will be a better leader one day for having loved you.”
I don’t even bother pretending to understand. I have a feeling this is all going to take a long time for me to process.
“Did you cut us off from phone service and Wi-Fi?” I ask her.
